Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-02-26
CICELY CHRYSTAL.

CICELY CRYSTAL.
The lecture was Just over. We four girls.
the lectured, were standing, notebooks In
hand, In q little group in the corridor. talk.
ing in subdued tones, consulting one another
on a knotty point in the history Of . grand
Jury. The lecturer came out Of the lecture
room and passed N. He bowed gravely a.
be passed, and went hastily down the stairs,
his college cap in his hand, his long gown fall
ing Imply about his tall, thin figure. We
were silent until he was out Of sight; then
our tongues were loosered, and We no longer
spoke in mbdued tonea
"Poor young mani" said Lottie. feelingly.
"He is grave as q judge" said Nell
"That," said Claudia, weightily, sis nerv-
business. Heis nervous girls-nervous Of us
But It was I who had most to say. I leaned
against the balusters, with my face toward
the open door Of the lecture room, and gave
the girls the benefit Of al my observations.
"Yes, he il nervous" I said. "Poor young
man, he is shy! When I asked him it the
grand jury still existed he blushed, girls-oh,
he is copper colored to start with, l know,
but he blushed through the copper color
"For your ignorance, perhaps" suggested
Claudia.
she is very shy" said I. @He is not used,
l expect, to teaching girls. He cannot for.
get that we are girls. He waited-did you
noticeH until we had left the room; The other
lecturers stalk out before us. I think be
wanted to open the door for us and to bow
us out Oh, poor young man, he is shy
shy and young"-
The girls were frowning at me. Claudia
was touching my elbow, with mysterious
meaning on one side; Nell pulling my sleeve
imperatively on the other. Lottie formed
her lips into a silent "hush."
"Shy and young-very young!-what is the
matterl" I said.
Nobody answered me. No answer, indeed,
was needed. At that moment our lecturer
passed US again and went back into
the lecture room. He had come up the
stairs behind me-he must have heard me-. He
seemed to glance my way as he passed. There
seemed to lie a twinkle in his gray-blue eyes.
The girls moved slowly away, but I turned
pr~ecipitately and fled.
Past the lecture room door, along the cor
ridor, upstairs I fled, to my own little room
study, bedchamber and reception ROOM
near the sky.
Perhaps, after all, I thought, trying to
comfort myself, he had not heard me. My
voice, alas! was clear as a bell; I was an only
girl in a family Of boys-a spoiled girl WHIT
had never been taught to DO meek and silent
in the presence of her brothers, talkative
girl who had learned to make herself heard in
any Babel Of louder and gruffer voices. But
perhaps he had been t~hinking-not listening-
meditating on the Mark system, trial by jury,
or the ~disruptive tendency Of feudal govern
ment But no, said the girls, he must have
heard; there was no doubt whatever that he
had heard me.
The girls were as happy as usual. They
could contemplate the situation TRANQUILITY;
it oven afforded them amusement; they found
something humorous in my discontinue. 1t
was /, not they, whom he had overheard.
We sat in q half circle on the floor
before the fire that night in our
pretty bright dressing gowns, and drank
| cocoa and ate sweet biscuits before 60
ing to bed. I was hostess. The study, the
little tin kettle singing on the hob, the blue
! and white china, the cocoa, the sweet biscuits,
| were all mine. We four friends gave cocoa
parties in turn. Tomorrow Claudia would
provide the feast. Yesterday Nell had been
hostess. Cocoa was the chief dissipation Of
our college. We gave ''cocoas" as our
brothers gave 'wines." It was a drink easily
made, inexpensive, nutritious.
We sat round the fire on the floor, talking
and laughing, holding our teacups and stirring
our cocoa slowly and absent mindedly as we
talked. Ny guests were merry, but l tonight
was unusually silent and depressed.
"After all" said Claudia sensibly. trying
to comfort me-''after all, what did you say,
Cisl Nothing-nothing, at all events, that
mattered. You said he was young. Well,
that is true. How old, girls, do you imagine
he isl"
TWENTY-FIVE" said Lottie.
"Twenty-four," said Nell.
"Very young" said Claudia conclusively.
''Then you called him shy-well, he IS shy.
You said he blushed-well, he does blush"
''That is just it" I groaned. "lt is all SO
true"
"He will think you observant," said Nelly,
nibbling the sugar from her biscuit with slow
epicurean enjoyment.
HE will think, at all events, that you are
interested in him" said Lottie cheerfully.
"Poor Cis-poor Cicely!" said the girls sym.
pathetically. "And Saturday is coming and
you will be forced to see him. You poor,
poor Cicely!"
Yes, Saturday was coming. On Wednes-
day and Thursday and Friday I went about
with a constant consciousness of Saturdays
inevitable advance. Our lecturer had stated
that on Saturday afternoon he would be
pleased to 60 through our papers with US, to
discuss points Of interest, explain difficulties
and remove possible misconceptions. We
were to go to him singly. I a tog 60 alone to
the man who, I had said, was shy Of me and
thought of me as a girl and could not forget
that I was a girl, whom I called copper col.
ored, who I had said blushed. Thu thought
was terrible.
Saturday came. The girls were cheerful.
"Go first, Cis," they said-"go first and get
it over"
eyes, I will go first" I said. But when he
anne I faltered and put off the evil moment,
and Claudia, Nell and Lottie all went in be-
fore me.
HE is not shy to-day reported Nell on
her return. II thir:s, Cis, that perhaps we
were mistaken about him. Or, perhaps, he
was under the impression that we were
learned girls; after our papers and our chat
ter he knows us better and thinks very little
of us. He is solemn-horribly solemn! And
no old mar could1be severer. Oh, he is quite
at his ease"
Nell had reported truly. He was quite at
his ease. He was sitting waiting at q table
which had pens and ink and papers on it;
there was no expectancy in his attitude; he
seemed a little bored, indeed; he sat with his
back towards tho door, n elbow on the
table, his hand propping his chin. He rose
when he heard me-, and looked at me calmly
enough as he shook hands
."Miss Chrystalr' he said
EYES," I said meekly.
He touched q chair that stood beside his at
the table, and I sat down with q feeling Of
obedience. His face was grave, his manner,
q Nell had said, severe; I wondered how I
could have thought him nervous; he looked
as though he had never blushed; he seemed
quite unaffected by the consciousness that his
pupil was a girl. He seated himself beside
me and drew q corrected exercise toward
him.
"This, I think, is your paper, Miss Chrys'
tall"
"Yes," I said, in q small voice-1-1 think
so, Mr.. Tudor"
He was turning the pages slowly and grave.